Indian companies are increasingly adopting Asian currencies to pay for the import of Russian coal in order to avoid using the US dollar and reduce the danger of violating Western sanctions against Moscow as per customs documents and industry sources.
In recent weeks, Russian coal has been purchased by Indian steelmakers and cement producers using the United Arab Emirates dirham, Hong Kong dollar, yuan, and euro, according to customs documents independently examined by the news agencies.
In June, 31% of the non-US currency payments for Russian coal were made in yuan, and 28% in Hong Kong dollars. According to the data from the trade source, the euro represented less than a quarter of the total and the Emirati dirham almost a sixth.
With this decision, the Reserve Bank of India hopes to increase bilateral trade with Russia in its own currency. Payments for goods may now be made in Indian rupees.
Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, India has aggressively increased its imports of Russian coal and oil, helping to protect Moscow from the consequences of sanctions and enabling New Delhi to get raw resources at lower prices than supply from other nations.
Russia surpassed China to become India’s third-largest coal supplier in July as imports increased by a record 2.06 million tonnes compared to June.
